The exemplary embodiments of the present invention generally relate to door coupling systems. More particularly, the exemplary embodiments relate to coupling systems for French style doors and apparatus incorporating such coupling systems.
Generally French style door design provides several benefits over conventional appliance doors such doors for cooking ranges and refrigerators. One benefit of French doors is enhanced ergonomics of accessing contents to be placed in or removed from an internal cavity of the appliance. French doors also minimize the space needed to swing the doors open and closed due to the reduced width of the door when compared to a single door appliance having a similar face width.
Generally French door systems without interconnected doors are operated with two hands where both doors are generally opened simultaneously. Some French door systems also require that the doors be opened in a specific order (e.g., the left side door is to be opened before the right side door) so that, for example, adequate sealing is achieved when the doors are closed.
French door systems with interconnected doors generally include components such as, for example, gear or chain transmissions for interconnecting the doors so that as a user opens one door, the other door is also opened. Generally these gear or chain transmissions introduce backlash in the operation of the doors so that the door operation is often unsatisfactory in terms of feel and door closing. In addition, the interconnected door transmissions generally include a significant number of parts and are space inefficient.